New health plans offer lower premiums, but fewer choices (Morning Read)

Highlights of the important and the interesting from the world of healthcare:

New health plans offer lower premiums, but fewer choices: Health insurers are pushing a new breed of plans that offer reduced premiums in return for a narrower choice of doctors. That could spell trouble for President Obama, who frequently repeated the idea that “You can keep your doctor” when selling health reform. Credit the insurers for doing something concrete to lower costs, but one analyst laments that this strategy is merely a “short-term fix.”

Epocrates IPO: Health IT company Epocrates has filed plans for an initial public offering of up to $75 million. The company has yet to determine the number of shares to be sold and their price range.

VCs backing healthcare: Yet another set of quarterly venture capital numbers are out, this time from Dow Jones, and healthcare turned in a strong performance. VCs pumped $2.7 billion into 201 healthcare financings last quarter, a 15 percent leap from the $2.4 billion deployed in 189 rounds in the same time last year.

What’s next for Qnexa? After an FDA advisory panel voted against approval of Vivus Inc.’s obesity drug Qnexa, the question become what will it take for the drug to eventually win approval? The drug’s efficacy isn’t much in doubt, so it could take a 10,000 patient cardiovascular safety study, analysts say.

Obesity’s cost in the workplace: With two-thirds of Americans estimated to be overweight or obese, American business is paying the price. Private employers are hit with an estimated $45 billion a year in obesity-related medical expenditures and work loss.

More regulation for DNA tests: A recent mix-up with the results of a mail-order genetic test has fueled a debate over whether the government should more aggressively police the proliferating tests.

Photo from flickr user meddygarnet